The team, including Indian-American researcher Rajan Jain, found that lung tissue has more dexterity in repairing tissue than once thought."It is as if the lung cells can regenerate from one another as needed to repair missing tissue.In mouse models, the team showed that Type-1 cells can give rise to Type-2 cells and vice-versa."We found that Type-1 cells give rise to the Type-2 cells over about three weeks in various models of regeneration.

We saw new cells growing back into these new areas of the lung," Jain informed.It is as if the lung knows it has to grow back and can call into action some Type-1 cells to help in that process, he added.This is one of the first studies to show that a specialised cell type that was thought to be at the end of its ability to differentiate can revert to an earlier state under the right conditions.